


Damage Control

by Leisey



Series: The Adventures of Time Travelling Agreste Children [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Back at it again with my usual tropes, Chameleon Spoilers, Crack Treated Seriously, F/M, Identity Reveal, Time Travel, i am terrible at giving birthday presents on time, ml season 3, no beta we die like men, the author was salty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 11:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18119660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leisey/pseuds/Leisey
Summary: Adrien was of the mind that once you met one of your children from the future, you weren’t going to see any more of them. Unfortunately, though, it seemed his children didn’t share that opinion.Or: Emma and Louis travel back from the future and help him put Lila in her place.





	Damage Control

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wonderfulwizardofthozz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderfulwizardofthozz/gifts).



> *sheepishly shuffles back into the Miraculous fandom, puts this fics down, shuffles away again*

Adrien was of the mind that once you met one of your children from the future, you weren’t going to see any more of them. Unfortunately, though, it seemed his children didn’t share that opinion.

He stared at his future daughter, who just randomly appeared out of a portal in Miss Bustier’s classroom. She stood beside a boy that looked the spitting image of Marinette, just with Adrien’s eyes.

He groaned. “Emma, _no_.”

His daughter grinned. “Emma, _yes_.”

The boy, who Adrien could only assume was Louis, waved at him. “Hi, Papa. I’m just here to do damage control. Where’s _Maman_?”

As if on cue, Marinette fell through the door and scrambled towards her seat. “Sorry I’m late, Miss Bustier. I—” she cut herself off and gaped at the sight of her children. “Emma? Louis, is that you?”

“Hi _Maman_!” they chorused.

Marinette’s shocked morphed into an exasperated one. “Emma, _no_.”

“That’s what I said,” Adrien shared a commiserating look with his Lady.

“Emma, _yes_!” their daughter pouted. “Hugo wouldn’t believe me, so I had to bring Louis back and get proof!”

“Believe you about what?” Alya interjected, unable to stay out of the conversation any longer. Adrien was unsurprised to see she was recording everything on her phone. “What proof?”

“That _Maman_ and Papa are Ladybug and Chat Noir—”

Louis elbowed his sister in the stomach and Adrien had a sudden, horrible realisation about what his son meant when he said, ‘damage control.’

“Cosplayers,” Louis finished. “Ladybug and Chat Noir cosplayers.” He shot a look at Emma that Adrien was sure meant _shut up right now_ in sibling-language and then turned to the rest of the class. “My sister hasn’t given me the chance to introduce myself yet. My name is Louis Agreste. It’s nice to meet you. Well, it’s nice to meet you as teenagers, I mean.”

Adrien’s classmates immediately started talking over one another.

“You guys cosplay?” Kim asked incredulously.

Chloé turned and narrowed her eyes dangerously. “What’s wrong with cosplay?”

“N-Nothing!” Kim put his hands up and immediately backpedalled. “I love cosplay! I do it all the time!”

“Another time travel akuma?” Max spoke up, before Alix could call Kim out on that blatant lie. “That seems severely unlikely.”

“Yeah, that was my thing,” Alix said. “Hawkmoth has no creativity.”

“Hawkmoth is never going to let me get through the syllabus,” Miss Bustier muttered bitterly from the front of the room. She sat down at her desk, clearly giving up on her lesson plan. “You may have free time.”

Everyone took this as their cue to swarm the Agreste children and excitedly ask questions about the future, forcing Marinette and Adrien to push their way through their classmates to actually see their son and daughter.

“Okay, who did I crush in the election to be the mayor of Paris?” Chloé demanded.

“Do people actually believe climate change is a thing in your time?” Mylène asked.

“Does the mayor keep trying to dump rubbish in space?” Ivan wanted to know.

Alya started recording them on her phone. “Can I put this on my blog? Tell us about Ladybug and Chat Noir! Are they together? Married? Please tell me Ladynoir is a thing!”

Adrien froze and saw Marinette tense beside him out of the corner of his eye. “Uh—”

“Give them a moment to breathe, everyone,” his Lady said. “They only just got here.”

“But Marinette,” Alya whined, looking at her best friend imploring. “ _Ladynoir_.”

Adrien was slightly unnerved that all his classmates nodded along with the blogger. Did all his friends want him and Marinette to get together? Well, their superhero selves to be together? It would be nice to act as a couple when transformed, but he and his Lady had agreed to not let the public know about their relationship development.

Too much could go wrong if they revealed they were together. People could think they’d be distracted by their feelings and fail to save Paris. Adrien would like to argue that he’d been in love with Marinette from the day they met, and that hadn’t managed to stop them from freeing people from Hawkmoth’s clutches. Still, doubts could lead to people losing faith in Ladybug and Chat Noir, giving Hawkmoth the upper hand, and there was no way he and his Lady were going to risk that.

At least he and Marinette got to date as their civilian selves. They’d been together ever since Emma had first arrived from the future and no one had thought any more about it. So what if Marinette and Adrien seemed to click instantly, with a wealth of inside jokes and nicknames that seemed to appear out of nowhere? According to the rest of the world, that was just a given when your daughter arrives from the future and inadvertently plays matchmaker.

Speaking of daughters, Adrien really should have focused on the confused expression that flickered onto Emma’s face.

“Ladynoir isn’t a thing here yet?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. “But—”

Adrien, Marinette and Louis all moved as one, lunging to cover Emma’s mouth. Adrien got there first, but his hand was covered moments later by his Lady’s and his son’s. Emma just stared at them reproachfully, but her expression soon turned regretful and wide-eyed at the sight of Marinette’s frown.

He couldn’t blame her. Adrien had seen akumas cowled by that frown; their daughter didn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done.

“YET!” Alya cried, looking delighted. “She said _yet_! As in, Ladynoir will happen _in the future_!”

“How romantic!” Rose gushed, and Juleka said something that no one really heard over the excited cheers of the rest of the class, but she nodded happily along with her girlfriend.

Their friends all broke out into enthusiastic Ladynoir-themed chatter, only getting louder and louder as they went on. Miss Bustier tried to shush them and gain some control over her rowdy, excited class, but unfortunately their teacher was unsuccessful, and their classmates continued to hound Emma and Louis for details.

Adrien had just wished for a distraction when one burst through the door.

“Sorry I’m late, everyone!” Lila’s deceptively cheerful voice greeted them. “I was just at the doctor’s because my tinnitus has come back! Ladybug didn’t cure me after a—”

The class liar fell silent at the two new arrivals, but Adrien was already mentally groaning. Lila had been a particularly nasty thorn in his and Marinette’s side since her apparent “return” from Achu. Ever since the Chameleon incident, he and his Lady had been at odds with how to deal with her. Adrien was of the opinion that calling Lila out would only make things worse, while Marinette wanted to expose her for the liar she was.

Despite that, Marinette had heeded Adrien’s advice and kept silent, but there was an ongoing animosity between the two that made Adrien believe that there was something more going on that Marinette hadn’t told him. He also had the sneaking suspicion that it somehow involved him, what with how much attention Lila paid him, regardless of how firmly but politely he told her that he was happily dating Marinette.

He was sure that his Lady would eventually tell him the full scope of the situation, but he was happy to simply support her until that moment came. They were quite content in their seat of the back of the class, their partnership ensuring that they worked well together, without distraction.

But now, as his children’s openly friendly expressions turned into scowls at the sight of the newcomer, Adrien regretted not pressing for details with the Lila situation.

“Who is this?” Lila asked.

“I am Louis Agreste and this is my sister Emma,” Louis introduced them with such a tone forced politeness, that Adrien was sure he must have learnt it from him; Agreste’s knew how to act polite in public, after all.

“Agreste?” Lila echoed in surprise.

“We’re Marinette and Adrien’s children from the future,” Emma said, just as stiffly as her brother. “An akuma brought us here.”

“Isn’t it great?!” Rose grinned brightly. “You missed Emma the last time she were here because you were in Achu, but now her and her brother are back!”

Determined to pay more attention and not be an oblivious dolt, Adrien watched closely as Lila reacted. Her eyes momentarily narrowed, before a blatantly fake smile was plastered on her face. In contrast, his Lady looked positively smug, and Adrien promptly decided that even though he didn’t know the full story, he was determined to back her up.

“I told you that Marinette and I were happy together,” Adrien said, smiling at Lila even while he was proud to be able to play the ‘I told you so’ card. “We’re just a couple that’s lucky enough to see that we’re together and happy in the future, too.”

“How…wonderful,” Lila replied, sounding as if it was anything but.

Adrien frowned. It was glaringly obvious that Lila thought the opposite of what she was saying, but his classmates were nodding along and accepting her words the same as they always would.

It rubbed him the wrong way. Lila was blatantly lying and clearly held contempt for his family, but his friends couldn’t see anything wrong. Maybe his Lady was right and it was better to expose her for what she was?

He glanced at his children to find Emma and Hugo having a silent conversation through expression alone. It was clearly a sibling thing, but then again, he and his Lady had managed to do the same numerous times; it was a sign they knew each other well.

“As I was saying,” Lila said, determined to be the centre of attention once more. “My tinnitus is worse than even before since I was caught in explosion during that last akuma att—"

“I’m sorry,” Emma interrupted. “We haven’t been introduced.”

“Yes,” Louis continued. “We’ve given our names, but we never got yours. Who are you?”

Everyone gasped.

Because Emma and Louis clearly knew everyone in the future. They had a familiarity with them all that showed that Marinette and Adrien had stayed friends with their classmates even after they’d finished school. It meant that Emma and Louis knew _everyone_.

But they didn’t know Lila.

* * *

Miss Bustier wrenched control back from her class after that and no one had time to say anything more. Claiming that free time was over, their teacher set them to work with a firm, “I will not have you failing exams simply because Hawkmoth has an obsession with jewellery.”

Adrien was thankful for the reprieve in his classmates’ questions. He didn’t really want to dive into details about why Lila was a stranger to his children. However, he was curious about their frosty reaction to the resident liar of Miss Bustier’s class. They’d been perfectly happy to speak to everyone else, but once Lila arrived they put on such a forcibly polite air that it would have made Adrien’s father proud.

Emma and Louis had been excused from doing work, but they quietly passed notes to one another as the lesson went on. They were squished in between him and Nino, so Adrien tried to glance at what they were writing, but Emma hunched over it and blocked his view, shooting him a look that screamed, _Nice try, Papa._

When the bell for recess rang, his children packed away their things, shot to their feet, grabbed his and Marinette’s hands and dragged them off for, “Agreste family bonding time.”

Emma and Louis didn’t stop dragging them until they made it to Marinette’s bedroom. Adrien wasn’t sure what Tom and Sabine made of the cheerful, distracted, “Hello, Grand- _mère_! Grand- _père_!” that was called out as they blitzed through the bakery, but he was sure there’d be questions later.

Marinette sat at the chair on her desk and Adrien took his place on the chaise, watching in concern as his children paced angrily around the room.

“Okay, what’s going on?” he asked.

“ _Maman!”_ Emma cried, completely ignoring his question. “How can you stand to be around her?”

“Why is everyone believing her lies?!” Louis demanded a second later.

“More like _how_ is everyone believing her lies?” Emma scoffed. “They’re outrageous!”

“Wait,” Adrien said, finally catching on. “You’re talking about Lila? What has she done now?”

“Oh, wake up and smell the deception, Papa,” Louis crossed his arms with a scowl. “Lila Rossi is a wanted criminal back home.”

 _“What?”_ he and Marinette chorused in shock.

“She willingly gets herself akumatised to help Hawkmoth,” Emma said, scowling. “She’s wanted as his accomplice.”

“Why?” he wanted to know.

“Cause she hates _Maman_ —she hates Ladybug,” Louis explained, looking equally as annoyed as his sister. “But we’re not gonna let her get away with everything she’s been doing to you, _Maman!_ We’ll protect you!”

Adrien went cold.

“Wait,” he said, staring at Marinette and coming to the horrible realisation that things between her and Lila were worse than he thought. “What do they mean? What has Lila been doing to you? Is—is there something worse than the lying?”

Marinette looked down with a sigh. “I didn’t want to tell you.”

“My Lady, _please_. What did she do?”

“She threatened me,” Marinette confessed, looking guilty at keeping it from him. “She said she’d turn my friends against me and steal you away from me.”

 _“What?!”_ Adrien jumped to his feet. “When?! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“You said humiliating her would make her hurt more. You said making a bad guy suffer had never turned them into a good guy. I didn’t want to disappoint you by making it worse.”

Anger coursed through him. How dare Lila do that to her? How dare she threaten his Lady and think she could get away with it?! However, as quickly as his fury appeared, it was replaced by shame. How dare he think that taking the high road was the better option? How blind did he have to be to miss the depth of Lila’s animosity towards his girlfriend? How could he have let Marinette face this alone, without thinking she could come to him for help?

Adrien walked over to crouch in front of her so they were eye to eye, gently taking her hands. “I’m so sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me and I’m so sorry for not having your back.” He paused, trying to find the right words. To apologise properly for failing her. “I should have never have said that. I’m so, _so_ sorry, My Lady.”

Brave, selfless and ever-resilient, Marinette sent him a smile. “It’s okay, _Chaton_.”

“It’s _not_ ,” he shook his head. “We need to tell everyone what she’s done.”

“It’s fine. You’re right. We can just ignore her—”

“I’m not going to ignore this, Marinette,” he vowed. “You mean everything to me and she hurt you. I won’t let her get away with that.”

“Yeah!” Emma agreed, punching a fist in the air with enthusiasm. “She is going down!”

“Safely and without bloodshed,” Louis said, pointedly eyeing his sister.

She waved him away airily. “Semantics, Lou.”

Plagg poked his head out of Adrien’s pocket and eyed Emma appreciatively. “She’s definitely a kitten. Hey, kid, what do you think of powers of complete and total destruction?”

“Hey, Plagg!” Emma greeted. “I love destruction! You and I build jenga towers all the time just to knock them down.”

“And do you like cheese?”

“More than almost any other animal by-product.”

“Adrien, I want a divorce,” Plagg announced, floating over to Emma. “Your daughter is cooler than you.”

“Yes!” Emma cheered, cupping the kwami in her hands and holding him against her face. “Plagg loves me in every point in time.”

“Plagg!” Tikki scolded, zipping out of Marinette’s bag. “Stop being a bad influence.”

“It’s okay, Tikki,” Louis said, letting the kwami of creation sit on his shoulder. “They’re like this all the time.”

“And Paris is still standing in the future?”

Louis laughed. “Surprisingly, yes.”

Adrien turned his attention away from them to study his Lady. Marinette was watching their kids and kwamis interact with a soft, contented smile on her face; it was far better than the guilt and pain from moments before.

“I mean it,” he whispered to her, soft enough that the others wouldn’t here. “I’ve got your back. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you like I should have been.”

“You and me against the world, right?” she smiled at him.

She was far too forgiving for what Adrien felt he deserved. Guilt churned in his gut, and he was determined to make it up to her.

“Right,” he agreed, before turning back to look at their children and raising his voice so they could hear. “But we’ve also got some help and I’ve got a plan.”

Plagg, Tikki, Emma and Louis all fell silent to listen.

“What is it?” Marinette asked.

“Louis,” he faced his son. “You came here to do damage control on your sister—"

“Hey!” Emma interjected, indignant.

“But now we’re all doing Lila damage control,” Adrien continued, staring at them with all the seriousness of a general giving orders.

“You can count on us!” Louis promised, and Emma nodded determinedly beside him.

“And one more thing,” he said, a mischievous, Chat-like grin creeping onto his face.

They all looked at him expectantly.

“I give you full permission to give out spoilers.”

* * *

Adrien’s plan was simple.  Lila thrived on attention, so they would just have to steal it away from her. Every time she opened her mouth to lie, Emma and Louis would be there with an interesting fact from the future to steal the spotlight.

“When I was saving Jagged Stone’s cat—”

“Did you know _Maman_ has designed the cover of every one of Jagged Stone’s future albums?!”

* * *

“The arthritis in my wrist has been—”

“What was the secret to Aunt Chloé winning the election? Sabrina, of course!”

* * *

“I met so many interesting DJ’s in New York—”

“Hey, Louis, was it Clara Nightingale or XY who sang at _Maman_ and Papa’s wedding?”

“Uh, from the stories and pictures, it was both of them _and_ Jagged Stone.”

* * *

“When I was in Achu, I rescued a kitten from being drowned in a river. I nearly didn’t make it back to shore, but—”

“Did we tell you about the time Kim represented France in the Olympics?! He won gold in swimming! What? Of course I’m serious.”

* * *

“Now that my tinnitus is back, I’m going to have so much trouble with my work. Adrien, would you be able to help—”

“Ivan and Mylène are famous activists. You’ve created your own charity!”

* * *

“Marinette tried to push—”

“Juleka, you’re a famous photographer! There’s this really nice series of selfies with you and all these famous people.”

“Portraits, Em, they’re called portraits.”

“Whatever, Lou.”

* * *

“When I was in Australia, I nearly lost my arm in a vicious drop bear attack—”

“Hey, Nathaniel! Could I have one of your signed drawings? I bet it would be worth heaps back home!”

“ _Emma_ ,” Adrien, Marinette and Louis chided in exasperation.

She pouted. “Spoilsports.”

* * *

Adrien kept a close eye on Lila’s reaction as his kids continued to steal her spotlight throughout the day. She was frustrated, staring at them in thinly veiled contempt. Now that Adrien knew what to look for, it was obvious that Lila had stared at Marinette the same way over the past few weeks, and he felt like a colossal idiot for not doing anything about it.

He really should have pressed for details when he knew that there was more going on. Now that he knew the full situation, he was determined to put an end to it.

Things came to a head once the final bell had rung and they were free to go home. Miss Bustier had dismissed them and headed to the staffroom, and Lila took one last chance to get attention before everyone scrambled out of the room.

“My best friend Ladybug—”

Emma and Louis glanced at Adrien the minute she started talking and he sent them a minute nod. It was time to up the ante.

“I’m sorry, Lilo, was it?” Louis interjected. “But that’s not right.”

“It’s _Lila_ ,” she scowled.

“Lila. Right.” Louis smiled apologetically. “You’re wrong. Ladybug’s best friend is Chat Noir and no one else.”

“Best friend, husband, whatever,” Emma muttered under her breath, copping an elbow in the ribs from Louis.

“Wait, what?!” Alya caught the comment and looked utterly delighted. “Did you just say that they’re mar—”

The siblings frowned at her. “Not now, Aunt Alya.”

The reporter fell silent and Adrien had to hide a grin at her gobsmacked expression. His kids were on the warpath now, and they weren’t going to stop for some Ladynoir gossip. The exchange had caught the attention of everyone in the class, and they all waited to see where Emma and Louis were going with the conversation.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir specifically said that they refused to make friends with people in the masks, because it puts them at risk. Why would you endanger yourself like that?” Louis wanted to know.

“Well, she said it was okay to be friends because I’m a black belt in taekwondo and can protect myself,” Lila said.

“Oh really?” Emma’s eyes lit up in challenge and she fell into a fighting stance. “So am I! Would you like a match?”

Adrien was suddenly aware of why Louis specified that they’d deal with this ‘safely and without bloodshed.’ He had to step up to make sure fists wouldn’t go flying.

“ _Emma_ ,” he and Marinette warned in unison.

Their daughter sighed and relaxed her stance. “Fine.” She levelled her gaze at Lila. “But you shouldn’t tell lies about Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“I’m _not!”_ Lila insisted, looking indignant.

“Their own children don’t know their identities,” Louis said.

Okay, that one was a lie. The kids _hadn’t_ known their identities until Marinette and Adrien had accidentally spilled the beans the last time Emma time travelled.

“They have _kids?!”_ Alya shrieked.

Emma and Louis turned to her again. _“Not now, Aunt Alya.”_

“You’re just making that up,” Lila said, which was the biggest hypocrisy Adrien had ever heard.

“Hey!” Marinette snapped. “You can’t talk to them that way.”

Adrien folded his arms and glared at her. “Our kids aren’t liars.”

As expected, Lila immediately back tracked at seeing he was displeased with her. “That’s not what I meant! It’s just that we don’t know for sure that Ladybug and Chat Noir have children.”

“Saying ‘we don’t know for sure’ is just another way of saying that you don’t believe my kids, which means you think they’re lying.” Adrien gestured to his Lady. “Marinette and I are many things, but we’re not parents who would raise liars.”

“How dare you say that about our children?” Marinette marched up into Lila’s face, her angry arms out and showing just how furious she was. “That’s rich coming from you.”

“Whoa, guys,” Nino piped up. “Maybe we should all just calm down?”

The DJ glanced at Adrien, expecting his usually easy-going best friend to diffuse the tension. But Adrien wasn’t going to do anything; Lila had this coming.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Lila demanded.

This is what Adrien had been waiting for. They’d been testing Lila’s patience all day, and she was close to running out. She wouldn’t be able to keep up her polite, innocent act for much longer.

“It means—"

“ _Maman_ , it’s okay,” Louis reached out to put a comforting hand on his mother’s arm. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah,” Emma said. “Don’t get upset about a liar.”

“I’m not a liar!”

“Sure, Lilo.” Emma shrugged, apathetic.

“It’s _Lila_!”

Louis nodded. “Right. _Lie_ -la.”

Distantly, Adrien knew that he should be somewhat concerned about how well Emma and Louis played off each other. He was sure they could be potential nightmares and get into all sorts of mischief that his elder self would weep about, but his instead he just watched in awe as his children systematically destroyed what was left of Lila’s patience.

He was also aware of his classmates watching the situation unfold with bated breath. No one else seemed willing to speak up since Nino’s unsuccessful attempt to calm everyone down, and instead their eyes were darting from Marinette, Adrien, Lila and the kids like they couldn’t decide where to look.

“Lila, Lila, pants on fire.” Emma grinned, and Adrien couldn’t help but laugh at the pun.

Marinette and Louis groaned. “Emma, _no_.”

“Emma, _yes_ ,” he and his daughter said in unison and then fist bumped.

Puns. What an art form.

The corner of Louis’s mouth twitched. “Don’t fall for her hook, _lie_ and sinker.”

Emma moved her hand in a so-so gesture. “Needs work, man.”

“Oh, everyone’s a critic.”

“I’m not a liar!” Lila exclaimed, finally reaching the end of her tether. “Ladybug’s the liar!”

Dead silence followed her words and Lila’s eyes widened dramatically when she realised what she said. A smug feeling of triumph welled up in Adrien as he took in her frantic ‘oh shit’ expression. But before he could say anything, someone beat him to it.

“I’m sorry,” Chloé surprised him by speaking up. “Did you just call Ladybug a _liar?!_ That’s ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! Ladybug is the best person in Paris and _my_ best friend, not yours!”

“Yeah!” Sabrina agreed a second later.

Everyone else chimed in defending his Lady. Adrien glanced at Marinette and was pleased to see her smiling at the passionate support for her alter ego. Good. His Lady deserved it.

Lila opened and closed her mouth a few times, but it seemed that she had finally run out of excuses. She floundered for words, but Adrien wasn’t about to let her fib her way out of the situation.

“Ladybug didn’t lie, Lila,” he said, and everyone fell silent to listen. “ _You_ did.”

“No, I—”

“You and Ladybug never had an instant connection when she saved your life, and you’re not really good friends,” he went on. “I was there when Ladybug confronted you about it. It’s all lies.”

Everyone gasped.

“Wait, what?” Alya looked distraught. “That interview was made up? It got the Ladyblog so many views and it’s _lies?!”_

“Dude!” Nino said reproachfully.

“How dare you lie about my best friend!” Chloé crossed her arms and glared. “Wait until my Father hears about this!”

Everyone began talking over one another.

“My journalistic integrity is ruined!”

“What about helping me see Steven Speilberg?”

“Did you even go to Achu?”

“What about the arthritis in your wrist?”

“Did you even see someone’s eye getting gouged out in India by the corner of a napkin?!”

 _“Ew!”_ Emma and Louis groaned in unison.

“That’s disgusting!” Emma grimaced.

“And ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous,” Louis said, sounding a lot like his Aunt Chloé. “Don’t tell me you guys actually believed that?”

Adrien’s classmates all looked at the floor and didn’t answer.

“Duuuuuuudes,” Emma channelled her inner Uncle Nino. “Up your game.”

Okay, now they were getting a bit cheeky. Yes, it was nice to put Lila in her place, but they didn’t have to give his and Marinette’s friends a hard time.

“Emma, Louis,” Adrien said.

“Don’t be rude,” his Lady finished.

“Sorry, _Maman_ , Papa,” they chorused, looking regretful.

While they were all talking, Lila began inching her way out of the classroom. For a moment, Adrien considered letting her go. He did think that Lila was a bit of a wild card. If he didn’t say anything, her attitude might improve, and she could potentially be a valued member of their class. If he called her out, she could get angrier and become a prime target for Hawkmoth.

According to Louis and Emma, Lila willingly worked with Hawkmoth in the future. What if this is the moment that forced her into the supervillain’s arms? His kids had said that it was because she hated Ladybug, but what if their time travel and this confrontation were the things to set it off? Would it have happened if Emma and Louis didn’t come back in time?

Urgh, time travel was hard.

Still, Adrien couldn’t get the image of Marinette out of his mind. His courageous, beautiful partner, looking sad and hurt as she sat in her room.

 _She threatened me,_ Marinette had said. _She said she’d turn my friends against me and steal you away from me._

Anger coursed through him. No, he couldn’t let Lila get away from that. He couldn’t let her go free just because she might get akumatised. She had to face the consequences of her actions; he couldn’t let it slide.

What was that quote that Alya was fond of saying?

_All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing._

Well, he wasn’t about to let _that_ happen.

“Apologise for what you did to Marinette, Lila,” he said, his tone of voice broking no argument.

The girl in question stopped inches from the door and everyone turned to stare at her. The whole class—even Chloé—was frowning at her.

“What did you do to my girl?” Alya asked, instantly going into protective mode. She turned to her best friend. “Marinette? _What did she do?”_

Marinette was silent for so long, that Adrien wondered if she was going to let it go. That even as he decided to make sure Lila got her comeuppance, his partner decided to drop the issue entirely.

But no, his Lady always stood for truth and justice.

“She said she’d turn my friends against me and steal Adrien away from me. She said we were at war and I’d end up alone.”

“WHAT?!” the class exclaimed.

“Excuse you, Adrikins can date who he wants, even if it’s clumsy, poor bakers’ daughters!”

“How dare you say that about my best friend?!”

“Uncool, dude!”

“The odds of you stealing Adrien away from Marinette is severely unlikely, particularly when you factor in the arrival of Emma and Louis.”

“They’re so cute together, why would you want to break them up?”

The class clamoured over one another and crowded around Lila, demanding she explain herself. Lila’s eyes darted around the room, as if seeking an escape route, but she had no way of getting around their classmates.

“I—uh—well,” she stuttered, before her eyes landed on Marinette and narrowed. _“You little snitch!”_

She took a step forward, but everyone immediately stepped protectively in front of Marinette. Completely different to how they’d reacted when Lila first returned to their class, no one accepted her lies anymore; his Lady wasn’t alone, and her friends believed her.

Adrien was also interested to note that both Emma and Louis had dropped into fighting stances. Apparently, he and Marinette insisted every one of their children knew self-defence.

“I only tell people what they want to hear. What’s so wrong about that?” Lila glared at them all, but the look she sent his partner was especially vicious. “I warned you, Marinette! I said you’d lose everyone, and I meant it!”

Adrien moved to put his arm around his Lady. Of course, he knew that Marinette could handle herself. She had proven it many times during their partnership, but he was Chat Noir, and his first instinct would always be to protect the girl he loved.

Marinette laced their fingers together and gave his hand a comforting squeeze, a silent message of, _I got this_. She sent her protective classmates a soothing smile and they moved aside. Looking as confident and breathtaking as she did when facing an akuma, she walked up to Lila and stood her ground.

“I’ll you the same thing now as I said back then, Lila,” Marinette put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll see.”

Lila gritted her teeth, angrily shrugging Marinette’s hand away. “You think you’ve won this round? I’m just getting started. You and Ladybug? I won’t stop until the pair of you lose everything.”

While Lila had been monologuing, a familiar adult came to the door. With her back turned, Lila couldn’t see the new arrival and no one in the class wanted to speak up and warn her. Instead, the liar dug her own grave to a curious Miss Bustier who had come to see why her students still hadn’t left the classroom.

“Miss Rossi!” their teacher exclaimed, looking outraged.

Lila jumped and cringed, slowly turning to guiltily face Miss Bustier. “Y-yes?”

“Come with me this instant! We’re going to see Mr Damocles!”

Lila shot one final glare in Marinette’s direction. Adrien was sure it meant that they hadn’t seen the last of her, but he smiled in victory as the girl sullenly followed Miss Bustier out of the room. As their class broke out in cheers, he gave his Lady a hug.

 _“Bien joué,”_ his whispered in her ear.

 _“Bien joué, Chaton,”_ she replied softly. “Thank you.”

“Yeah!” Emma’s cheerful voice cried. “Agreste family group hug!”

Moments later, two firm bodies threw themselves at him and Marinette. They stumbled under the weight, but soon righted themselves and smiled at their two children. Adrien was sure they looked like an odd sight, two teenagers and their equally as teenage kids, but he loved them with his whole heart.

“Thanks for your help, you two,” he said.

“Anything for you guys, _Maman_ , Papa,” Louis smiled.

Adrien grinned. “I’ll remember that for years later when I’m trying to get you to do chores.”

His son’s smile faltered. “ _Papa_.”

Adrien laughed and they all moved out of the hug. Marinette and Emma were pulled into a conversation with Alya and the others, while Adrien and Louis stayed together.

“Thanks for coming along to do damage control,” Adrien said. “Even if it didn’t quite work out how you expected. Emma was quite the spoiler machine when she was here last.”

“She’s always been a force to be reckoned with.”

“There was no stopping her,” Adrien said ruefully. “We just had to wait until our future selves had defeated whatever akuma had brought her here and she was returned to the right time, telling spoilers all the while.” He paused and narrowed his eyes at his son. “Speaking of, how did you guys get here? Tell me you didn’t just wait around for another time akuma and charge at the first portal you saw.”

Louis sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, reminding Adrien so much of himself he felt the need to sit down. “Well…”

Yeah, he definitely needed to sit down. “No, you did _not_.”

“Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey?”

_“Oh my god.”_

Marinette looked over from where she and Emma were talking to their classmates. “What is it?”

“Our kids are dumb.”

“Hey!” said kids chorused indignantly.

“The pair of you willing ran into a portal by a time akuma just so you could come back here and get proof we’re Ladybug and Chat Noir—”

“You did _what_?!” Marinette cried.

“You’re _who_?!” Their shocked classmates demanded a second later.

Adrien froze. Oh god. Oh no. No. No, he did _not_ just say that.

Dead silence reigned in the classroom. His friends stared at them all in shock, Alya had her phone out and was starting to record, while his Lady just looked at him with steadily growing mortification.

“…In my defence,” Emma spoke up. “That was Papa this time, not me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone.
> 
> Okay, this is a very belated birthday present for my fanfiction wife, wonderfulwizardofthozz. The word document was sitting half finished on my computer for months while I battled writer's block and a general disinterest in ML. But I was thinking about season three and how annoyed I was at Lila's lies, and it spurned on the rest of this fic. Also, a shoutout to DearestMrIcarus on ff.net whose nice comments inspired me to dust off the cobwebs of this fic.
> 
> I'm out of practice with ML, so I don't feel like this is up to standard. I think it's pretty clear where the direction of this fic changed, but I wasn't going to delete the first 1000 words lol. Also, sorry if there's typos. It's late here and I just want this posted.
> 
> Still, I am happy to finally complete this wip and give it to my wifey. Better late than never, right? 
> 
> Regardless of how I feel about this fic, I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know what you thought in the comments.
> 
> Much love, 
> 
> Leisey.
> 
> P.S: Yes, that's totally a She's The Man reference I slipped in there. I've wanted to use it with Plagg for ages.


End file.
